What to watch on TV this week
This excellent series has been making history accessible to younger audiences for a while on CBBC, and makes a rare foray to the grown-up channel to mark 800 years since the creation of Magna Carta, the 13th century document that guaranteed some rights in Britain.
After a Co Clare singer reduced Tom Jones to tears last week, this episode has Cork vocalist Claudia Rose Long doing her best to impress.
Yet another awards show, this one is the European Border Breaker Awards for musicians who’ve achieved success with their first release. Blathnaid Treacy is on presentation duties, while Hozier flies the flag for Ireland.
The romantic notions around historic houses often don’t tally with the reality of the cost of maintaining them. Hence, so many owners try to get their premises to earn their keep. In tonight’s episode, the Brennan brothers help the proprietors of beautiful Annesbrook in Co Meath to turn their 18th-century mansion into a wedding venue.
Stephen Fry presents this year’s Bafta ceremony from the Royal Opera House in London, where most of the awards will probably be divided between The Grand Budapest Hotel, Birdman, The Imitation Game and The Theory of Everything.
It wasn’t just Mr Eastwood who saw Barry McGuigan through his boxing career — his God also got a few thank-you’s along the way. The Clones man tells Byrne about his faith and how it helped him during such times as the loss of his brother and father.
The first episode of the wildly-anticipated Breaking Bad spinoff hits streaming service Netflix today, followed by episode two on Tuesday. After that, and unusually for a Netflix show, we’ll get one episode every Tuesday.
Can the early days of a crooked lawyer really come up to the thrills’n’spills of Jesse and Walter?
Documentary on what happens some of the 6,000 children and teenagers in state care in Ireland when they turn 18.
At that point, they are expected to become more independent, but given that many of their backgrounds are littered with neglect, tragedy, violence, addiction, etc, this can be a difficult process.
Among the four people focused on are Limerick 19-year-old Darragh, whose mother died when he was six and his father passed away when he was 15. He’s now in an ‘after-care’ project, and is trying to become a chef.
We also meet Chantelle, 19, who was in care from the age of 13 and lived in more than 20 different homes.
Observational documentary watching the antics of 10 four-year-olds as they meet in a nursery for the first time, forming friends and unfriends as they make their first tentative steps in a parent-free world.
New series following people who never got to say sorry or thank-you after a major event in their lives, and now get the chance to put that right.
First up is Patrick Provis, injured in an IRA mortar attack in south Armagh, who searches for the helicopter crew who ultimately saved his life.
A slightly different emphasis than usual has Maguire addressing the confusion about food labelling. Apparently, the presence of a tricolour on a packet doesn’t guarantee the product is Irish.
Episode two of the series shows us the salad days of summer in the largest state in the US, as 24-hour sunlight gives grizzly bears and other animals a chance to fatten up for the tough months ahead.
As well as the weekly weigh-in, we see how participants fared in the Family Cycle Day.
The first visit of the week to the Co Dublin town has Claire finding out a few home truths about her sons. In tomorrow’s episode, Patricia hears a startling revelation about the night that Darren Kiely died.
Calais in northern France has become the gathering place for thousands of migrants who want to make their way to the UK.
Kemp talks to some of Sudanese, Syrians, Iraqis, etc, about why they’re willing to endure such awful living conditions, and often risk desperate attempts to make it across the Channel.
You’d imagine photo albums will soon become a thing of the past, but this series shows how they can provide no shortage of nostalgia and entertainment.
Each week, the Irish comedian will leaf through the albums of prominent people, beginning with Scouse funnyman John Bishop.
A documentary on the man with the golden flute, now aged 75.
RTÉ One, 8.30pm
Christy Moore and Olivia O’Leary take a look at a poem each from the shortlist for the Poem for Ireland.
Decent rom-com from Judd Apatow, in which a slacker played by Seth Rogen has a drunken one-night stand with Katherine Heigl.
This slow-moving thriller won’t be the best film you’ve ever seen, but it does have two interesting names associated with it: actor George Clooney as a contract killer,assign and director Anton Corbijn, best known for his photographs of U2, Joy Division, etc.
